July 25, 2007 – Hamilton, Ontario… The Hamilton Fringe Festival is gearing up for ten days of uncensored theatre, making downtown Hamilton the cultural place to be August 10-19.
20 companies will be performing in four venues at the Downtown Arts Centre (28 Rebecca Street) while one company performs at the Pearl Company (16 Steven Street).
Tickets are only $8 each and available at the door. A Fringe Pass ($60 for 10 performances and can be used for two people) can be purchased in advance at the Fringe Office in Jackson Square (just along from Denniger’s). Everyone needs to buy a Fringe “Backer” Button ($2 each). Once bought the button is good throughout the entire Festival (as long as you don’t lose it).
Hamilton Fringe 2007 Schedule (Adobe Acrobat)
The 21 shows that make up this year’s Festival are:
The Ballad of Monish (Marty Green Productions, Winnipeg, MN) This classic Yiddish operetta has been re-tooled for a modern audience. It’s scholarly, yet bizarre.
Balls (Ten Foot Pole Productions, Toronto) Rob Salerno’s comedy-drama won the Hamilton Fringe New Play contest. Sometimes, being a man means getting kicked in the balls. “ęęęę” – Ottawa Sun; “Must See” – Ottawa Citizen; “Best in Venue” – Ottawa Fringe.
Berbie’s Jam (The Ugly Stiks, Hamilton) Seven saplings spawned from the Ugly tree, and forcibly exiled from their home planet on the outer rim of Scmegma 74. Enter their minds! The time is now…Your beating awaits.
Bourgee-Bush Woman (Under The Blood Productions, Mississauga) This one-woman show, tells the stories of a little girl, bourgeois housewife, immigrant housekeeper, and a stripper! Different? Oh, they think so; yet, they have a few things in common.
Crack (Hammer Theatre, Hamilton) Sky Gilbert’s dark, hilarious and edgy play is about all the things that we sometimes don’t want to think about – things like addiction, misogyny and sexuality. A gritty Hamilton one-act play about collisions of class, using addiction to ignite the discussion.
In The Kitchen (Silver Fox Productions, Hamilton) Using music, dance, multimedia, and comedy, this is a fast-paced look at gender roles since the 1950s. This play promises to be a funny, touching, moving and thought-provoking look at how kitchens quietly influence our everyday behaviours.
The Lesson (Teatr Korzenie, Peterborough) A well-rounded education requires more than a good grasp of facts and figures: one must also plumb the depths of depravity, despair, humiliation, domination, and submission. One professor and his maid are certainly willing to take you there.
Mary Go Round (Work in Progress Theatre, St. Catharines) Mary just had a baby. So why isn’t Mary happy? Mary Go Round is an account of one family’s experience with Post-Partum Depression. A story of recovery.
Nailing the Hammer (Productive Smog, Stoney Creek) Through the use of sketch comedy, a serious critique of this city, Hamilton, will be examined through the many perspectives it offers. Nailing the Hammer was originally presented as part of the McMaster Honours Performance Series.
The Newspaper (Global Village Idiot Productions, Toronto) While reading The Daily newspaper Tony Molesworth, a veteran of the comedy scene, presents a fast-paced, topical, and very funny comedy monologue of Leno-style quick one-liners about the daily news on a wide range of subjects.
Obstacles to Love (Theatre Terrapax Borealis, Toronto) Finding love in the modern world is harder than ever. Stand-up comedian Andrew Borkowski jokes, rants, and gets exasperated with the craziness of it all.
Ode To Humanity, or The History of the Human Race – Abridged (Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre, Kitchener) A historically inaccurate look at the history of the human race, covering six billion years in fifty minutes. This “hilarious whirlwind history lesson” (KW Record) features dancing Romans, gay Frenchmen, and obnoxious Americans.
Perfect Wives, Desperate Lives (Perfectly Desperate Productions, Mississauga) Ever think the grass is always seems greener on the other side? That the beautiful people have the secret to a perfect life? Chip away the coiffed facade, and discover the truth hidden beneath the designer clothes.
Pillar: Passion Pie (24th Street Players (New York, NY) The fable of a woman’s journey to find herself and the land of the double rainbow, depicted in shadow puppetry, storytelling and song. Conceived and performed by Karen Thibodeau.
Skinning the Cat (Solstice Productions, Ancaster) Kevin Arthur Land’s comic-drama. In the early hours of the morning, Bruce is kidnapped from his suburban home and taken to an empty warehouse by a young man named Ned. Over the course of the day, it becomes clear that there is more to these men than there would appear.
Shifting Mozart (Op-Erratic Productions (Toronto) An opera “wannabe” announces “The show must go on!” and with “help” from her hip-hop loving daughter, Cecily, the Mozart lecture/recital turns into a hilarious op-erratic extravaganza.
Skitz-in-frona-ya: The Improv Show (Skitz-in-frona-ya, Hamilton) On the spot, using silly situations, they do skits without scripts. They are Second City improvisers, experienced actors and CBC radio comics. Check out this unedited and untamed show, where the audience gets laughs too.
Speed-the-Plow The Absolute Truth (Toronto) An original production of David Mamet’s comic masterpiece, this Speed-the-Plow is a brilliant black comedy, a dazzling dissection of Hollywood cupidity, and another tone poem by our foremost master of the language of moral epilepsy.
Summer Offensive: 3 Short Plays by David Demchuk (Theatre Erebus Inc., Hamilton) Erebus has strung a number of David Demschuk’s short plays together to create an anthology piece including a remount of If Betty Should Rise, which was a hit for Theatre Erebus at the 1990 Edinburgh Fringe.
Talk Thirty to Me (Oyster Productions, Toronto) Over fifty Toronto-area 29 year-olds, from fashionistas to refugees, were interviewed for this unique project. Every word in Talk Thirty to Me is verbatim, proving that the truth is stranger, and funnier, than fiction.
more…
Fringe 4 You!…/3
Where Our Soles Lie (On the Grid Productions, Toronto) October 12th 1940. Today marks the 36th day of consecutive bombing over London. Trapped in a collapsed tunnel, six women struggle with their pasts, while clinging to the hope of a future that may never come.
Who the Hell Started All This? (Fallen Angel Theatre, Oakville) This controversial play by Dejan Dukovski is about wars, dying Gods, fallen angels, and love. Each actor transforms into seven different characters, revealing the seven pieces of the human soul. Seven circles, seven characters, seven ways to kill love.
The Hamilton Fringe Festival is one of 25 yearly events licensed by The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF). The Fringe Festival concept began with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which started in 1952. Hamilton’s Fringe Festival was started in 2002.
The four governing rules of any Fringe Festival are: 1) Entrants are chosen on a “first-come, first-served” basis; 2) 100% of all ticket revenue must be returned to the artist; 3) There must be artistic freedom – no censorship is allowed; 4) There must be accessibility for all companies.
The 2007 Hamilton Fringe Festival is generously sponsored by: Acclamation Bar & Grill, Arts Hamilton, Cameron’s Brewing Co., Canadian Heritage, City of Hamilton, Copydog, Downtown Arts Centre, Downtown Hamilton BIA, Theatre Aquarius and Media Sponsors: AM900 CHML, 102.9 K-Lite fm, Cable 14, Oldies 1150, The Hamilton Spectator, The Hamilton Spectator Summer Camp Fund, THEZine, View, Wave 94.7fm, and Y108.
For more information visit www.hamiltonfringe.ca
July 25, 2007 – Hamilton, Ontario… The Hamilton Fringe Festival is gearing up for ten days of uncensored theatre, making downtown Hamilton the cultural place to be August 10-19.
